A large number of adhesive compositions are now employed in modern surgical management. The adhesive compositions are frequently based on proteins. One well known example is fibrin glue. Fibrin glues are notable for good biocompatibility and absorbability. Fibrin glues are used, for example, for treating bleeding wounds. However, a disadvantage of fibrin glues is their low adhesive force. In addition, fibrin glues are very costly and moreover show poor storage stability. Thus, fibrin glues must be frozen for storage or preservation. This in turn makes it necessary that the fibrin glues are thawed in good time before use thereof, thus making the handling of these glues involved and complicated. In addition, there is with fibrin glues a certain risk of infection. Moreover, the processing of human material to obtain proteins is costly.
Adhesive compositions based on cyanoacrylate monomers have by contrast a high adhesive force and are relatively low-cost. Since the adhesive compositions are synthetic, there is moreover no risk of infection. However, problems in this connection may be the slow absorption of set adhesive and a low adhesive flexibility, especially in relation to soft and flexible tissues. Since there is in the case of bleeding or weeping wounds the risk that the cyanoacrylate monomers will be washed out of the wound area before the adhesive composition sets, adhesive compositions based on cyanoacrylate monomers are mainly suitable for managing dry wounds.
DE 10 2005 007 920 A1 discloses an adhesive composition based on a liquid cyanoacrylate component and a liquid polysaccharide component. The adhesive composition is particularly suitable for closing and bonding, biological tissues. However, depending on the polysaccharide, for example, with carboxymethylcellulose, the polysaccharide and cyanoacrylate component may become inhomogeneous before the adhesive composition is set. In addition, some polysaccharide derivatives, for example, polysaccharides having amino groups, are soluble only in an acidic medium, and thus the anionic polymerization of the cyanoacrylate component is retarded.
A tissue glue based on methyl cyanoacrylate and gelatin which is particularly suitable for the treatment of bone defects is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,223,083. However, this glue tends to be hard and in particular brittle, thus limiting its general usability, especially in relation to the management of soft tissue defects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,699 B1 describes a patch based on cyanoacrylate and gelatin for bonding biological tissues. The patch is produced directly on the site on the body to be treated by irradiation with a laser. This entails initially the cyanoacrylate being applied to the site on the body to be treated and subsequently setting to give a layer of polycyanoacrylate. Chemically modified collagen is applied onto this layer and is subsequently irradiated with a laser. A disadvantage of U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,699 B1 is the use of laser technology, which makes the method complicated and in particular costly. There is in addition the risk of damaging healthy tissue.
Further compositions for repairing biological tissues are disclosed in WO 96/10428 A1. The compositions can be polymerized in situ to give an implant. Preferred components mentioned for the compositions are inter alia body proteins and precursors thereof, for example, fibrin and fibrinogen. However, the objections mentioned at the outset apply to these proteins.
It could therefore be helpful to provide an adhesive composition which is suitable in particular for use in surgical therapy and avoids problems known in the art. It could additionally be helpful to produce an adhesive composition as easily as possible and for it to be handled by the user with as few complications as possible.